I am sad to say that Larry Archibald's "The Final Word" column in the November issue, posted this week in this website's "Archives" section, is his last. When Larry, Stereophile's publisher emeritus, resigned from his salaried position at Emap Petersen at the end of June, he and I had envisaged him continuing to contribute "The Final Word" to the magazine.

This has not proved possible, so I will take this opportunity to thank Larry for luring me from the UK to the US in 1986, and for having allowed me the editorial freedom to say what I thought needed to be said and to publish what I thought needed to be published in the pages of Stereophile. I will certainly continue to do both of those things.

Larry's many friends in the high-end audio industry should note that he will still have a relationship with the industry that he loves and to which he has contributed so much. Last spring Larry joined the board of directors of KnowledgeLINK, a company that, via its GetPlugged e-commerce website, is attempting to bridge the gap between traditional specialty audio retailing and the brave new world of the Internet. Larry is also on the board of directors of Valley Media, one of the country's largest wholesalers of recorded music.

All of us at Stereophile thank Larry for making possible the magazine's growth and success from 1982 through its acquisition by Emap Petersen in 1998, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.